GOP creates new County Communications Coordinator position

By Ian Benjamin

Thursday, July 25, 2013

TROY -- A new $61,000 position within the Rensselaer County Office of Public Safety was created by the Republican majority during a special legislative session Monday night, overruling a Democratic minority which claims the position turns a civil service job into a political appointment.

While the special session's major item, a relocation of the Social Services and Probation departments to Flanigan Square, was approved unanimously, all six members of the Democratic minority voted against the creation of a county communications coordinator. The new position was creating by cutting the funding for the communications center supervisor position, a civil service job.

Minority legislators claimed that the new position was created to replace the communications center supervisor, which was held by Mike Saplee until his retirement several months ago. In that position, based out of the 911 center at the Rensselaer County Jail, Saplee was responsible for directing communications center employees and making managerial decisions. His position has since gone unfilled.

"This is not a position that should become a political appointment," said Legislator Gary Pavlic, D-District 1. "This work is too specific and important to the citizens of Rensselaer County to become political. The job needs to remain a civil service position."

The new county communications coordinator position will not be a civil service job, and so will not be subject to minimum qualifications and mandatory tests required of all civil service jobs. Thus, the county administration will be able to hire any individual.

Pavlic noted that the funding for the new position gives the county authority to appoint an unqualified or sub-qualified individual to the position, a move which he cautioned strongly against.

Contrary to the claims of the minority, an acting spokesman for the county executive stated that the new communications coordinator would not assume the responsibilities of the communications supervisor role, but rather, would only direct ongoing capital projects. Those projects include upgrading the phone and radio systems, improving the radio towers, and replacing the dispatch center.

"The coordinator position is more management of the capital projects, whereas the supervisor position is more day to day operations: monitoring the tower sites, the communications center, et cetera," said Jim Gordon, acting spokesperson for the county administration. Gordon stated that the county has a "limited window" in which to move forward with those projects, as they are being funded with $5 million from the state Department of Homeland Security.

The responsibilities of the now-defunct communications center supervisor will be consolidated into an unspecified civil service position, said Gordon. He could not speak to why the new position had not been created as a civil service job initially.

"It's an important job and, down the road, maybe we can revisit the classification of the title," said Rich Crist, a spokesman for the Republican majority. "What is most important is making sure you get someone qualified there."

Crist noted that the list of candidates for the position includes many with years of experience and high-ranking positions in public safety roles.